Exiting Cakes and Desserts with Zucchini, Pumpkin, Parsnips and Fresh Berries

Zucchini and Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

3 eggs

3 dl sugar

5 dl shredded zucchini

1 dl colza oil

5 dl flour

150 gr shredded dark chocolate

1 dl cocoa

1 tsp bicarbonate

0,5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Chocolate Mousse for filling and frosting

200 g dark chocolate (70 %)

4 dl whipping cream

Set the oven for 180 Celsius Degrees

Grease a springform about 21 cm in diameter

Instructions for making the Chocolate Cake:

Whisk the eggs and the sugar fluffy.

Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until there are no lumps.

Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake for 1 hour or until you can test with sticking a toothpick in the cake and it comes out dry.

Cover the cake with foil if it gets too much color during baking.

When taking the cake out of the oven, leave it to cool a while before placing it upside down on a cake dish. Leave it on the dish to cool completely with the springform still on. When cooled off take off the springform, cut the cake in three layers and fill each layer with the chocolate mousse. Decorate the top and sides with the remaining chocolate mousse.

Decorate with shredded chocolate on top of the cake before serving.

Instructions for making the Chocolate Mousse:

Cut the chocolate in small pieces. Melt carefully in a bowl put in a pan with hot water (waterbath) or in the microwave oven (careful with that). Let the chocolate cool and whip the cream. Blend the chocolate carefully into the whipped cream.

American Pumpkin Pie with Pecan nuts

Ingredients

Pie crust:

3 dl flour

½ tsp salt

125 g butter

1 tbs cold water

Filling

250 g shredded pumpkin

400 g condensed milk

2 eggs

0,5 dl muscovado sugar (brown sugar)

1 tbs gingerbread spices (ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground cardamom, ground ginger)

1 tbs sifted flour

75 g pecan nuts

Set the oven for 200 Celsius degrees

Making the pie crust:

Crumble together butter, salt and flour with your fingers until the butter is totally mixed with the flour. Add the water. Press out the dough in a pie form, you can use a springform. Place the form with the pie dough in the freezer for 10 minutes. Prick the pie shell with a fork all over and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

Prepare the filling:

Mix the shredded pumpkin, condensed milk, eggs and Muscovado sugar with gingerbread spices and flour.

Lower the oven to 150 Celsius Degrees. Pour the filling into the piecrust and bake for another 40 minutes in the middle of the oven. After baking for 20 minutes, take out the pie and place the pecan nuts on top of the filling and then bake for the remaining 20 minutes.

Serve with ice-cream or whipped cream

Parsnip Cake

Ingredients

275 g shredded parsnips

2 dl colza oil

4 eggs

4 dl flour

3 dl sugar

2 tsp vanilla sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 ts ground cardamom

1 tsp salt

Frosting

1 dl icing sugar

75 g butter (room temperature)

200 g cream cheese

2 dl whipping cream

1 dl sunflower seeds (to sprinkle on top)

Coconut flakes (to sprinkle on top)

Set the oven to 175 Celsius degrees. Grease a cake form about 25 cm diameter or 30x40 cm.

Making the cake:

Shred the parsnips and place in a bowl with the eggs and the oil. Whisk to a fluffy batter. Add the dry ingredients and blend for a minute until all is well mixed.

Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake for about 40 minutes, or until you can stick a toothpick into the cake and it comes out dry. Take out the cake and let it cool completely.

Making the frosting:

Sift the icing sugar. Add the butter and whisk until the mix is fluffy. Add the cream cheese and mix until smooth.

Whip the cream in a separate bowl and then carefully blend the whipped cream into the cream cheese mix. Decorate the cake with the frosting and sprinkle roated coconut flakes and sunflower seeds on top. (Roast the coconut flakes and sunflower seeds in a dry frying pan until a bit golden and you hear the snapping in the frying pan. Cool completely before decorating the cake.)

Pancake Pyramide

Ingredients

8 dl milk

3 dl flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla sugar

4 eggs

6 tbs butter for frying the pancakes

Filling

3 dl whipped cream

1 l fresh berries (blueberries of sliced strawberries or berries after your own taste)

Instructions

Mix the milk, flour, salt, baking powder and vanillasugar. Add the eggs and mix to a smooth batter. Fry the pancakes in four different sizes. Leave to cool.

Whip the cream and prepare the berries.

When serving put the pancakes on top of each other with the largest in the bottom. Between each pancake layer spread a layer of whipped cream and fresh berries. Add layers with the pancakes according to size until you have made the tower.

NORWEGIAN POTATOE LEFSE

POTATOE LEFSE 

Ingredients:Enough potatoes to make 8 cups diced potatoes1/2 cup whipping cream (not whipped)8 heaping tbsp. real butter1 tbsp. salt4 scant cups flour

Directions:
Peel and cook potatoes.

Rice potatoes while hot.

Add butter, cream and salt, thoroughly. Cool off. 

Mix in flour.

Roll out very thinly on lightly floured board (covered with pastry cloth). Use rolling pin cover or else will stick to pin. Use as little flour as you can when rolling rounds out. Use about 1/3 cup of potato mixture when making rounds. 

Bake on a hot griddle (not greased). Store between towels. 
Makes 24 pieces of lefse.

How to serve and eat Potatoe Lefse

The most common is to smear it with butter and sprinkle with suger, than roll and eat.

It can also be eaten with just butter as a sidedish to a soup or to a dish like Lutefisk or making small tapas with your own favorite fillings. In Norway it is also very common to roll around a hotdog instead of ordinary hotdog bread.

Smear with butter and sprinkle with sugar and roll up to serve

Make tapas with cream cheese, ham and some green, roll, cut and serve

Make tapas with cream cheese, salmon, some green, cut and serve

 

Make tapas with shrimps, mayonnaise, caviar, roll, cut and serve

The lefse can also be folded and cut in smaller pieces like squares or rektangles

In Norway Potatoe Lefse is also used instead of a bread or bun around hot dogs

Graduation Buffet

Graduation Buffet with Hispanic, Norwegian and Swedish touch!

Norwegian Kransekake

http://ohemmabjorg.blogspot.se/2014/06/norwegian-kransekake.html

Chocolate Cup Cakes with Chocolate Frosting

http://ohemmabjorg.blogspot.se/2013/04/chocalate-cup-cakes.html

Sugarcookies

http://ohemmabjorg.blogspot.se/2014/06/sugar-cookies.html

Norwegian Marzipan Sponge Cake with Vanilla Filling

http://ohemmabjorg.blogspot.se/2014/06/marzipan-sponge-cake-with-vanilla.html

M and M Cookies
http://ohemmabjorg.blogspot.se/2014/06/m-and-m-cookies.html

Posole Rojo

http://ohemmabjorg.blogspot.se/2014/06/posole-rojo.html

Pan de Campo

http://ohemmabjorg.blogspot.se/2014/05/pan-de-campo-or-cowboy-bread.html

M & M Cookies

M & M Cookies

Ingredients
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup cornstarch
2 cups flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup M&M
3/4 cup butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F/190 degrees Celsius

Beat sugars and butter in large bowl on medium speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in vanilla and eggs; beat in flour, salt and baking soda on low speed. Stir in candies. Drop dough by teaspoon about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet or roll with your hands. Flatten slightly with fork.

Bake until edges are light brown, 8 to 11 minutes. Let stand 3 to 4 minutes before removing from cookie sheet.

Cookies made with butter will flatten more and tend to be somewhat darker along the edges, but are more flavorful. Watch carefully to prevent burning.

If you prefer higher cookies that spread less, vegetable shortening may be substituted for the butter, or use half of each. A higher temperature (400°F/205 C will help cookies set before spreading).

Marzipan Sponge Cake with Vanilla Filling

Marzipan Sponge Cake with Vanilla Filling

For my daughters graduation buffet I also made a Norwegian Marzipan Sponge Cake with Vanilla Filling. However I wanted to make it with a personal twist for her. So I made it in three parts, the Graduation hat, the future at Univeristy of Texas - Pan American, UTPA and the emblem and the horse in their logo. I also made the part with the horse with icing, in case someone did not fancy marzipan. And than the third piece, the soccerball since she is a soccerplayer. I did have a lot of fun figuring out how to make the three parts. Inside the cake is sponge cakes and the filling is with vanilla cream. I have the recipe for this cake and the filling and the marzipan on my blog since before and here is the link to how to make it. And have fun making up your own personal cakes according to the occation.


Marzipan Cake recipe  
http://ohemmabjorg.blogspot.se/2013/04/norwegian-marzipan-cake.html

Norwegian Kransekake

Norwegian Kransekake

Kransekake, the main piece on a Norwegian partytable. This time I made it for my daughters graduation party. And since she is also a soccerplayer and going to the USA to study at college and play soccer I made a special twist on the cake, just for her. So instead of only flowers I made graduation hats and soccerballs for decoration as well as roses. It is all made in marzipan and colored and painted with eatable colors. The decorations I made and than dried. This is order to be able to glue them to the cake. The glue is melted sugar. I have put the recipe for the Kransekake on my blog before, so here is the link to making the cake. Here you can also see how it can be decorated in different ways according to the occation. 

http://ohemmabjorg.blogspot.se/2013/09/norwegian-kransekake.html